The Rest Is Politics

586. Can the Democrats Capitalise on Trump's Midterm Disaster?

Two former government insiders, one fresh from a road trip through Trump country, explain what the 2026 midterm result actually changes for both parties and for America's allies.

1. 01Democrats won both houses of Congress in the November 2026 midterms, and Trump conceded quickly while blaming his absence from the ballot.
2. 02Rory Stewart found voters in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia punishing Trump over prices, not over any threat to democracy.
3. 03Spending on the 2026 midterms was put at $12 billion, the most in US history and more on ads than the whole 2024 presidential cycle.
4. 04Rory Stewart warns a lame-duck Trump keeps full command of the military and could still act on Iran, Cuba or Taiwan.

585. Rory Goes to a Trump Rally and Will the Youth Protests Spread to Britain?

It pairs on-the-ground reporting from Appalachia, a Trump rally and Louisiana with hard early-vote and polling numbers, so you can judge the midterm mood for yourself.

1. 01Rory Stewart reported from Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and a Trump rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the final days before the 2026 US midterms.
2. 02Pentecostal voters in Appalachia forgive Trump over abortion and gay marriage, but Rory Stewart expects gas and grocery prices to decide their vote.
3. 03Early voting reached a record 49.6 million nationally, including 6.9 million in Texas, about 50% more than Texas cast early in 2022.
4. 04Democrats need four seats to flip a 53–47 Senate, yet pollsters have missed in the last four cycles, Ann Selzer's Iowa call among them.

David Blunkett on Blindness, Adversity and Why Politicians Give Up Too Easily

A former Home Secretary who has never been able to see explains, with humour and candour, what kept him going through grief, resignation and injury.

1. 01David Blunkett, born blind and sent to a school for the blind at four, became Sheffield Council leader at 33 and later a New Labour cabinet minister.
2. 02Blunkett credits his recovery after resigning as Home Secretary to other people, including a cup of tea from Margaret, the doctor he later married.
3. 03Blunkett has worked with seven guide dogs, and says each one needs some months before it can anticipate where he intends to go.
4. 04A fall between platform and train on the London Underground left Blunkett with 25 weeks of outpatient treatment and a lasting sense of humiliation.

584. Why Is Trump Losing Voters and Will Texas Turn Blue?

It sets ground-level reporting from Ohio and Texas against the national polls, so you hear both what voters say and what the numbers say before the midterm results.

1. 01Rory Stewart in Ohio and Izzy in San Antonio, Texas test whether Republicans could lose Senate and governor races in two very different midterm battlegrounds.
2. 02Diesel and grocery prices hit Ohio farmers, while ICE detentions reach Texas churches, with one in five Latinos saying they know someone detained or deported.
3. 03Latino voters went from a 25-point Democratic lead in 2020 to 3 points in 2024, and Alastair Campbell now cites Trump's net approval among them at minus 38.
4. 04Rory Stewart finds most Trump voters in Butler County, Ohio decent and moderate, and expects only a small share to defect, though that could still flip seats.

583. Is Burnham’s Budget Too Safe and How Brazil Defied Trump

Two of Britain's best-connected political insiders explain a new government's first budget and then three election upsets that nearly every pundit called wrong.

1. 01Chancellor John Healey's first budget under Andy Burnham committed Britain to defence spending of 3% of GDP by the end of the decade.
2. 02Healey funded energy-bill relief with a one-off tax on banks and a gambling levy, including £100 off bills for homes in council tax bands A to D.
3. 03Rory Stewart put UK tax at 36.3% of GDP and heading for 38.5%, up from about 33% in 2019, the highest level since the war.
4. 04Aleksandar Vučić called an early election in Serbia and lost to a student-led list with no leader, which won more than 140 of 250 seats.

Kim Leadbeater, MP: My Sister's Murder and Why I Never Wanted To Go Into Politics

Two people who have each suffered extreme loss disagree civilly about assisted dying, and the MP who led the bill explains in detail why she thinks it was blocked.

1. 01Kim Leadbeater became MP for Batley and Spen only because her sister Jo Cox was murdered during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.
2. 02Leadbeater describes grief as layers around the loss itself: Jo Cox's public, deliberate killing added media, political and court strands that an illness does not.
3. 03Unelected peers tabled about 1,200 amendments to the assisted dying bill, including filming each death and a pregnancy test for every applicant.
4. 04Lindsay Nicholson backs choice in principle but wants hospices, only one third funded by government, fixed before assisted dying becomes law.

582. Netanyahu’s Fight for Survival and the Gaza Film That Shocked Rory and Alastair

Two former insiders read the Knesset arithmetic and then confront what an Israeli documentary reveals about how Gaza targets were chosen.

1. 01Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc polls near 52 Knesset seats against about 54 for the opposition, both short of the 61 needed for a majority.
2. 02Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc rules out a two-state platform and a coalition with the Arab parties, who could win around 15 seats.
3. 03Rory Stewart cites polling that only about a quarter of Jewish Israeli voters still support an independent Palestinian state.
4. 04An Israeli documentary describes AI flagging suspected Hamas members at 85% confidence and strikes cleared if under 20 civilians would die.

581. Trump and Putin vs. Zelensky: Is Europe Sleepwalking into Disaster?

It sets out, in plain terms, the argument that Europe's security problem is no longer Russia alone but its reliance on an America that may be on Russia's side.

1. 01Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell, recording in Oslo after dinner with Norway's prime minister, argue Donald Trump has sided with Russia over Ukraine.
2. 02Ukraine relies on US satellites and intelligence for deep strikes, so the Starlink and Starshield switch-off also blinded it to incoming Russian missiles.
3. 03Alastair Campbell cites a figure that 85% of objects orbiting Earth are controlled by Elon Musk, the near-monopoly behind Europe's satellite dependence.
4. 04Rory Stewart says Europe can only cut its US dependence by accepting reprisals, from the EU spectrum row to Patriot missiles and AI models.

Addiction, Breakdown and Finding Persevilience: Rory Interviews Alastair

Rory Stewart gets Alastair Campbell to describe his breakdown, his depressions and his son's addiction more plainly than he usually does on the show.

1. 01Alastair Campbell coined persevilience for turning any setback into a chance to grow, and built a book on it after two books about depression.
2. 02Campbell's definition needs values at its core, so Donald Trump and Nigel Farage show the relentlessness of persevilience without the principles.
3. 03Campbell's breakdown at 29 in Scotland ended in arrest, and he says the memory of surviving it got him through the Iraq War years.
4. 04Leaving Downing Street brought one of Campbell's three worst depressions, which he ties to losing his purpose and a need to stay relevant.

580. How to Solve Britain’s Youth Unemployment Crisis

Transcript available; summary, chapters and takeaways are on their way.

579. Trump’s Public Execution Order and Burnham’s Brexit Intervention

Transcript available; summary, chapters and takeaways are on their way.

578. Alastair and Michael Gove Disagree Agreeably on Brexit and Israel

It is a rare long, civil argument between a Leave architect and a Remain campaigner, with both sides putting numbers on the table.

1. 01Michael Gove stood in for Rory Stewart on The Rest Is Politics, debating Brexit, Israel and Manchester City with Alastair Campbell.
2. 02Michael Gove says Brexit pays off through regulatory freedom in AI, gene editing and finance, after an upfront cost from new customs barriers.
3. 03Alastair Campbell cites a 6 to 8 percent GDP hit and 39.2 million customs declarations costing UK firms about £7.5 billion a year.
4. 04Michael Gove will not initiate criticism of Israel, while Campbell cites 81,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, 21,000 of them children.